


The Soul Knows Before the Mind Does

by legendaryroar



Series: Sheith Angst Week 2018 [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, M/M, Sad Ending, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 01:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15830505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legendaryroar/pseuds/legendaryroar
Summary: Keith feels it before he sees the empty cockpit of the Black Lion, but that's when he starts to know.





	The Soul Knows Before the Mind Does

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sheith Angst Week Day 4 ~~Betrayal~~ / **Soul**.

Keith doesn’t stay with the others. The empty cockpit of the Black Lion sets his heart hammering. His hands sweat. Someone puts a hand on his shoulder and he bolts. Blindly, he runs. He could stop anywhere, but he knows, he already knows. He can feel it in the cold emptiness of his own soul. Anywhere isn’t good enough. He needs to be somewhere safe. He needs...he needs a room with a door that locks.

At first he runs to his own room for the sake of appearances, but then backtracks to Shiro’s. _Theirs_. It’ll be better, he thinks. He’ll need it. He’ll need...

He’s getting ahead of himself but he already knows. There’s an empty space where Shiro should be and he knows what that means.

The door shuts behind him and he activates the lock. For a moment, he takes in the messy bed, and then he turns and faces the door. Breathing is harder than it was moments ago. Hope keeps trying to build in his chest, but he knows. He knows and it already hurts. It’s like he’s shattering from the inside out. His whole body shakes now that he stops moving. His soul aches. It aches and cries out already.

He stays there for a time, forehead resting on the door, body shaking, shivering.

When he starts taking off his armour, he already knows. Piece by piece, he peels it off. His hands shake so much it takes time. Time enough for hope to build, if he wasn’t beating it back. Hope will make this worse. He already knows.

When the armour is all gone, tossed carelessly to the side, his hands tremble as he peels off the undersuit, eyes shut tight. Nausea wakes in his stomach. He stumbles to the bathroom, naked, eyes up high. He forgot about the mirror.

Frozen in place, he looks at his own skin. Past the scars, past the bruises. Right to that spot over his right ribcage. That empty spot. Nothing but smooth, clear skin. His inhale turns into a broken thing. His exhale sounds like a wounded animal.

The mark that had been there, the little wolf that was just their own, it’s gone. Melted into nothingness. Gone.

Shiro’s gone. Really gone.

Keith’s legs give way, and he crumbles to the floor. His hands comes to his ribs to cradle at nothing. His soul curls around that empty place where it used to touch Shiro’s soul. There’s nothing there. A gaping, cold nothing.

His body shakes again, shivers. He feels too cold and too hot at once as the loss sets in. Sobs start to build in his chest and he lets them out. Tears flood his eyes and he lets them fall. He knew, he knew and knowing wasn’t enough to stop this.

He doesn’t have the time. He has to walk back out there and inform the others. He needs to...but he _can’t_.  He lets it out. He lets it out, safe in Shiro’s room, locked away from the others. He curls around that new gaping void within him and cries out his pain.

His soul echoes the cry, desperate to be heard.

But Shiro can’t hear him anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> I could not go past the soul prompt without writing about soulmates!!
> 
> You can find me at [legendaryroar](http://legendaryroar.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


End file.
